Cylinder and dial knitting machines with pattern wheels

ABSTRACT

A CYLINDER AND DIAL KNITTING MACHINE EQUIPPED WITH PATTERN WHEELS IS DESCRIBED, WHICH MACHINE PROVIDES DOUBLE THE PRODUCTION AND PATTERNING CAPABILITY OF EQUIVALENTSIZED PRIOR ART MACHINES. SUCH FEATURES ARE BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE UTILIZATION, IN SUCH A PATTERN WHEEL MACHINE, OF TWOBUTT CYLINDER NEEDLES, A FIRST BUTT OF EACH SUCH NEEDLE BEING FOR SELECTIVE ENGAGEMENT ONLY WITH PATTERN WHEELS, AND THE SECOND BUTT OF EACH SUCH NEEDLE BEING FOR ENGAGEMENT ONLY WITH CAMS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH PATTERN WHEEL, THE CAMS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH PATTERN WHEEL INCLUDING A RAISE CAM FOR PLACING THE NEEDLES IN SUCH POSITIONS THAT THE PATTERN WHEEL MAY EVENTUALLY SELECTIVELY OPERATE ON THE RESPECTIVE FIRST BUTTS, A STITCH CAM FOR LOWERING NEEDLES AS THEY MOVE BEYOND THE PATTERN WHEEL AND A PLACER CAM BETWEEN THE RAISE AND STITCH CAMS. SUCH PRACTICE PERMITS THE PATTERN WHEELS AND ASSOCIATED CAMS TO BE PACKED AROUND THE PERIPHERY OF THE KNITTING MACHINE, WITH ATTENDANT HIGH CLOTH PRODUCTION AND PATTERNING VERSATILITY. THE RAISE AND PLACER CAMS ARE GUARDED TO PERMIT THE MACHINE TO OPERATE AT HIGHER SPEED WITH LESS ATTENTION AND TO THEREBY FURTHER INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY.

55. 5; 1971 MIS'HCQN 3,552,150

CYLINDER AND DIAL KNITTING MACHINES WITH PATTERN WHEELS Filed June 11.1968 INYEN'TOR. Lester Mlshcon WITN ESS:

United States Patent O U.S.-Cl. 66-45 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE A cylinder and dial knitting machine equipped with patternwheels is described, which machine provides double the production andpatterning capability of equivalent sized prior art machines. Suchfeatures are brought about by the utilization, in such a pattern wheelmachine, of twobutt cylinder needles,'a first butt of each such needlebeing for selective engagement only with pattern wheels, and the secondbutt of each such needle being for engagement onlywith cams associatedwith each pattern wheel, the cams associated with each pattern wheelincluding a raise cam for placing the needles in such positions that'cRoss REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Copending application SerialNo. 670,097 filed Sept. 25, 1967 in the name of Lester Mishcon, nowPatent No. 3,513,666, of which this application is acontinuation-inpart. a

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I 1 Field of the invention The inventionrelates to improvements in and to independent needle cylinder and dialknitting machines, and in particular to improvements in and to suchmachines that employ slotted pattern wheels for the production ofpatterned cloth, such' wheels being arranged in a predetermined mannerwith jacks for the selective actuation of the machine needles.

(2) Description of the prior art "Known prior cylinder and dial knittingmachines are equipped with pattern Wheels disposed in the manner depicted in United 'States Patent No. 2,006,821, issued July 21,-- 1935(see in particular FIG. 4 thereof). Except for minor modificationsthereto, the pattern wheel arrangement of United States Patent No.2,006,821 is still employed today in cylinder and dial knitting machinesmanufactured by the instant asjsignee.

It had long been recognized that there is a practical limit to thenumber of pattern wheel cylinder feed stations that may be accommodatedabout a given diameter circular knitting machine. For example, with a26-inch machine (i.e. cylinder diameter is 26 inches) and 2 /2 inchpattern wheels, the maximum number of feed stations thought to bepossible was approximately 3.6 in

Patented Jan. 5, 1971 number, with each of the feed stations occupyingapproximately 3.14 inches of cylinder circumference. In such a machine,needles at each cylinder station-are raised by a raise cam for eventualselective elevation by a pattern wheel. To pack more feed stations aboutthe needle cylinder, thereby to increase cloth production on suchmachine, has heretofore meant, in elfect, to sharpen the steepness ofthe cylinder raise cams, and of the pattern wheel raise angles. Thishowever is impractical for the reason that the above noted machinealready employs a cylinder cam raise angle of about 57 degrees, and apattern wheel raise angle of about 35 degrees. To exceed about 57degrees of cylinder cam raise angle is to encourage cylinder needle buttbreakage; to exceed about 35 degrees of pattern wheel raise angle is toencourage jammingand eventual breakageof the cylinder needle buttswithin the pattern wheel slots, since such butts and slots cooperatelike intermeshing gears, and therefore their respective pitchesrequirecontrol Within close limits.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To avoid the impasse of a fixed number ofpattern wheel feed stations about the cylinder of a cylinder and dialknitting machine equipped with pattern wheels, which machine is of agiven diameter, and which impasse is brought about by practical limitson the raise angles of cylinder raise cams and pattern wheels, thepresent invention proposes the following:

' Relocating the pattern wheels to their own cam free race-way; andutilizing two butts for needle raising purposesone such butt beingcooperative with the raise cams and the other such butt beingcooperative, in tandem, with the pattern wheels, the butt whichcooperates with the raise cams also being cooperative with stitchcamsand with placer cams which are located between the raise and stitchcams.

Such a practice permits of acceptable cam and pattern wheel raiseangles, say 57 degrees and 35 degrees respectively, but allows theformerly required 3.14 circumferential cylinder inches to be compressedto about 1.4 circumferential cylinder inches, thereby permitting ofabout 60 cylinder feed stations about a 26-inch machine (2 /2 inchpattern wheels), and permitting attendantly about double the clothproduction as has been heretofore possible with a cylinder and dialpattern wheel machine of equivalent diameter.

Aside from the matter of doubling cloth production, the invention alsointrinsically provides the capability for greater patterning within thecloth so produced. That is,

since machines incorporating the invention have a greater number ofpattern wheels, than do equivalent-sized prior art machines, morepattern wheel slots are now available to influence any given cylinderneedle during a single sweep of the needle cylinder, and hence patternversatility is maximized.

In its preferred form, the invention utilizes two-butt cylinder needles,which admittedly are well known. In the relative travel of the cylinderneedles with respect to a pattern wheel feed station, each lower needlebutt initially meets a raise cam, which raises the cylinder needlerelative to its corresponding slot in the pattern wheel in question, andits upper butt above the jack (if any) in such slot. Then the needlemoves generally laterally for a time, without additional rise, andduring this time the pattern wheel slot corresponding with such cylinderneedle moves inwardly and upwardly and any jack in the slot engages theupper needle butt to position the cylinder needle in a well knownmanner.

The objects of the invention is to utilize more effectively theperipheral space about a cylinder and dial knitting machine providedwith slotted pattern wheels,

whereby a greater number of cylinder feed stations than had heretoforebeen possible may be provided, and whereby cloth production by means ofsuch a machine may be increased. As an added feature, the inventionprovides a cylinder pattern wheel cam section, dimensionally smallerthan any heretofore known, which cylinder section includes an adjustablecam for use in selectively effectively disabling the needle-selectioncapability of the pattern wheel of such cylinder section.

The invention will be described with reference to the figures wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of cylinder and dial cam sections arrangedaccording to the invention, and

FIG. 2 is a view of the apparatus of FIG. 1 taken generally along line2-2 thereof.

With reference now to the figures, the means resulting in greater clothproduction, and more versatility in patterning, will be described.Before proceeding with the description, however, it is well to realizethat the view of FIG. 1 is generally from within the needle cylinder,looking past the cylinder and dial needle beds to the inner faces of therespective cam sections.

As is customary, a cylinder cam section 10 and a dial cam section 100are arranged for cooperation with needles in, respectively, cylinder anddial needle beds, neither of which beds is shown for reasons of clarity,but both of which beds are provided with the usual needle accommodatingslots. The cylinder section 10 is provided with an upper inclined face14, and rotatably mounted to the inclined face 14, in the manner ofcopending application Ser. No. 670,097, now Patent No. 3,513,666, is apattern wheel 24, such pattern wheel being held to such cylinder section10 by means of a bolt 22 and nut 25 combination.

The pattern wheel 24 is rotatable in a plane parallel to the plane ofits inclined face 14, and such plane forms and angle a with respect tothe direction of relative travel of the cylinder needles 26. The patternwheel 24 is provided with slots 28, skewed with respect to the plane ofpattern wheel rotation; and the skewing and rotation plane are so chosenthat the slots 28 may fully intermesh with the cylinder needles 26 whensuch slots 28 are vertically disposed and adjacent such needles. Asabove noted, it has been found that a pattern wheel rotation plane whichmakes an angle a, relative to the direction of cylinder needle travel,greater than about 35 degrees tends to bind and clog with needles, tothe detriment not only of such cylinder needles, but of the patternwheel itself. Each pattern wheel slot mayas is conventionalbe filledwith a high jack 30, or with a low jack 32, or with no jack depending onwhether it is desired to raise a respective cylinder needle to knit,tuck or welt knitting height. A non-working portion of the pat-ternwheel extends beyond the cam section block 10 to overlie the plane ofthe working portion of a stitch cam 38 on another cam section block 10'when such another cam section block 10' is positioned adjacent the camsection block 10 (as shown in FIG. 2 and in the aforementioned copendingapplication Ser. No. 670,097, now Patent No. 3,513,666) for prior use inactuating the needles 26.

The illustrated cam section 10 is provided with a needle raise cam 34having a raise angle of about 57 degrees (above noted to be about thesteepest raise angle practical without causing needle butt damage) andthe cylinder needles 26which have respective upper and lower butts 27and 29 respectivelyare adapted to have their lower butts 29 ride up, andon, the raise cam 34. The lateral length d of the raise cam 34 issufliciently short to permit each cylinder needle 26 to be sufficientlyrapidly raised so that its respective upper butt 27 is above, inelevation, and waiting for the pattern wheel slot that it willeventually, and in tandem, mesh with as such slot relatively slowlycomes inwardly and upwardly to meet and selectively raise the upper butt27 of such cylinder needle.

After pattern wheel selection of the respective cylinder needles, suchneedles travel laterally of the cam section 10 to engage and be loweredby either a stitch draw cam 38 or a cam 40. In the event that a cylinderneedle is raised by means of a high jack 30, such needle engages itsstitch cam at, say, a level K; in the event a cylinder needle is raisedby means of a low jack 32, such needle engages its stitch cam at, say, alevel T; in the event a cylinder needle is not raised by means of apattern wheel jack, such needle gets lowered to welt height by means ofthe cam 40, which cam 40 is compressible into the section 10, in wellknown manner, to prevent needle butt breakage caused by needles flyingout o their respective welt paths.

The stitch draw cam 38 may be adjusted for stitch length determiningpurposes as indicated in copending application Ser. No. 670,097, nowPatent No. 3,513,666, or as indicated in copending application Ser. No.720,647, filed Apr. 11, 1968 in the name of Harry Agulnek and assignedto the instant assignee.

A manually settable placer cam 54,. for use in canceling out all TUCKand WELT, or all WELT, selections of a given pattern wheel 24 is adaptedto be cradled in a U-shaped cut-out 56, being positionable to wipe outall TUCK and WELT pattern wheel selections or to wipe out all WELTpattern wheel selections. The positioning of such cam 54, though notshown, may conventionally be by means of a pinion and ratchet, whichpinion is on axis 58 and which ratchet is on the cam 54, as disclosed inPatent No. 3,513,666.

The dial cam section which may be like the dial section of copendingapplication Ser. No. 630,095, now Pat. No. 3,456,460, includes the usualsystem of cams 102 for cooperation with the dial needles 104; and bymeans of which dial cam section 100 in combination with the cylinder camsection 10 described above, rib and interlock cloth (depending on themachine gating) may be produced at a heretofore unattainable rate, andwhich combination of cylinder and dial cam sections 10, 100 is even moreversatile as to patterning capability as was attainable with the machineof copending application Ser. No. 670,097. That is, not only is thepatterning capability of the machine of application Ser. No. 670,097intrinsic to the arrangement of the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2 but now,with such arrangement, knitting may be additionally influenced by meansof the dial needles themselves.

The operation of apparatus incorporating the invention will bedescribed, with special emphasis being placed on how the number ofpattern wheel feed stations about the cylinder of a. cylinder and dialknitting machine may be increased over equivalent prior art cylinder anddial knitting machines, whereby greater machine productivity andpatterning versatility may be had. Shown in FIG. 1 are six two-buttlatch type cylinder needles numbered 1 through 6, the upper butts 27thereof having, in the description which follows, the sufiixed T, andthe lower butts 29 having the suffixes B. The cylinder needle 1 is shownfirst entering the cylinder cam section 10 with its lower butt 1Bengaging the raise cam 34, at which time its corresponding pattern wheelslot, i.e. the one having high jack 30', is sufiiciently apart from andbelow the upper needle butt 1T that the jack and upper needle butt donot engage. The cam 34, then, relatively rapidly (i.e. compared with therise of the pattern wheel slot in question) drives the cylinder needleupwardly so that the needle assumes the position of the cylinder needle2, the lower butt 2B of such cylinder needle 2 riding almost to the apexof the raise cam 34, with the upper butt 2T thereof in its correspondingpattern wheel slot (as shown) or above such slot (depending upon theangular difference between the raise cam and pattern wheel), but in anyevent with the butt 2T above the jack (if any) in the slot. The cam 34then releases the lower needle butt 2B and, as the needle cylindercarries the cylinder needle 2 laterally of the cylinder section 10 tothe position occupied by the cylinder needle 3-, the pattern wheel slotcorresponding with such cylinder needle, moves to cause the jack thereinto come up to engage the underside of upper needle butt 3T. With no jackin the pattern wheel slot corresponding with a given cylinder needle,the needle passes along like the needle 4, the upper butt 4T slippingout of its pattern wheel slot as such s'lot moves up and away from theupper needle butt 4T, the lower butt 4B thereof ultimately engaging thecam 40 and being lowered thereby to welt height; with a high jack in thepattern wheel slot corresponding with a given cylinder needle, theneedle gets carried upwardly by means of its upper butt, and passesalong like the cylinder needle 5 (the lower butt 5B riding just beneatha guard cam 70 until it meets and is lowered by the stitch cam 38)whereby such needle cooperates with its corresponding dial needle 104 toknit, say an interlock stitch; similarly, a low jack in the patternwheel slot corresponding with a given cylinder needle causes such needleto pass along at tuck height like the cylinder needle 6, the lowerneedle butt 6B being lowered by the cam 38 as the upper butt 6T of suchneedle slips out of its corresponding pattern wheel slot, whereby suchneedle cooperates with its corresponding dial needle 104 to knit, say acardigan stitch. Guard cam 70 restricts the uncontrolled upward movementof needles from the raise and placer cams.

While the invention has been described in its preferred form it is to beunderstood that the Words which have been used are words of descriptionrather than of limitation, and that changes within the purview of theappended claims may be made without departing from the true scope andspirit of the invention, bearing in mind that the key to the inventionis the use, in a pattern wheel circulation knitting machine, of oneneedle butt for actuation only by cams, and the use of a second needlebutt for actuation only by pattern wheels.

Having thus set forth the nature of this invention, what is claimedherein is:

1. Circular knitting apparatus comprising:

(a) a first plurality of needles, which needles are provided with lowerand upper butts,

(b) a second plurality of needles cooperative with said first pluralityof needles,

(c) a cylinder cam section block (10) for use in actuating the needlesof said first plurality of needles,

(d) a slotted pattern wheel angularly disposed relative to the verticalaxis of said cylinder section block (10) and adapted to have itsperiphery cooperative with only the upper butts of the needles in saidfirst plurality thereof for selectively raising the same, said patternwheel having a non-working portion extending gbeyond said cylinder camsection block (10) to overlie the plane of the working portion of astitch cam on another cylinder cam section block (10') when such anothercam section block (10) is adjacent the first mentioned cam section block(10) and in a position for cams thereon to actuate the needles inadvance of cams on the first mentioned cam section block (10), (e) araise cam for the cam section block (10') adapted to cooperate with onlythe lower butts of the needles in said first plurality thereof, saidraise cam being disposed in advance of the effective periphery of saidpattern wheel in the direction of relative needle travel,

(f) a stitch cam for the cam section block adapted to engage only saidlower butts of the needles in said first plurality to lower same to setstitches selected by said pattern wheel, a placer cam on the cam sectionblock (10) between the raise cam and stitch cam, said placer cam beingadapted to engage only said lower needle butts,

(g) a guard cam for the cam section block (10) disposed to restrict theupward movement of knitting needles from the raise cam and placer cam,and

(h) a dial cam section block for use in selectively actuating theneedles of said second plurality of needles.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said placer cam is adapted forvertical positioning relative to said pattern wheel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 868,276 10/1907 Klemm 66-38X1,890,417 12/1932 Saftlas 66-25 1,925,450 9/1933 Levin 66-50(A)2,068,179 1/ 1937 Horrocks 6650 2,124,304 7/1938 Lombardi 6625 3,335,5818/1967 Pernick 66--50 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,201,220 7/1959 France 6657 4 WM.CARTER REYNOLDS, Primary Examiner

